How to or can't boot from a CD or DVD
Issue
How to or can't boot from a CD or DVD.
Cause
If you are unable to boot from a CD or DVD it's possible you may be encountering one or more of the below situations.
- Need to press a key to boot to the CD or DVD
- CD or DVD is not bootable.
- Not setup properly in CMOS.
- Bad CD or DVD disc.
- Jumpers not set properly.
- Cables or other drive related issues.
- Bad CD drive.
Solution
To boot from the computer place the bootable CD or DVD into the CD-ROM drive, reboot the computer, and the computer should detect the bootable CD and boot from the disc. If the computer is loading to an error message when attempting to boot to the CD or loads into Windows, you may be encountering any of the below situations.
Need to press a key to boot to CD or DVD
Some bootable CD's such as the Microsoft Windows XP CD will prompt a user to press a key to boot from the CD. If no key is pressed then the computer will continue to boot normal and not load the CD. Make sure to pay close attention to the screen as the computer is starting and press a key if prompted.
Not all CDs and DVDs are bootable; in order to boot from a CD you must have a CD that is stated to be bootable. Keep in mind that Windows 95 CDs are not bootable; however, Windows 98 ME, XP and later CDs are bootable.
Not setup properly in CMOS setup (BIOS)
If the CMOS setup is not properly setup the computer may ignore or not look at the CD-ROM or DVD as a bootable option. Verify in the CMOS Setup that your settings are properly set to boot from the CD-ROM drive. These settings will be under the boot options. We suggest that you have your boot options setup similar to the below example. If all else fails make your CD-ROM or ATAPI CD-ROM the first bootable option.
1 - Floppy or LS120
2 - CD-ROM or DVD
3 - Network (if available)
4 - Hard
drive
If CD-ROM is listed after a device that is bootable it will boot from the other device before the CD-ROM. Verify that the devices before CD-ROM, such as floppy, do not have bootable media in them. This includes your hard drive or HDD, which unless empty will always be bootable.
Verify either in the computer you are using or another computer that the CD or DVD is readable. It's possible that the CD or DVD is bad or not readable. If you determine the CD is getting errors when being read, try first cleaning the CD before looking for a replacement. Additional information about how to clean your CD disc and CD-ROM drive can be found on our cleaning page.
Not all disc drives will boot properly if the jumpers are not set properly, verify that the CD-ROM or DVD drive has the jumpers set properly. We recommend that you have the CD-ROM set as master on the secondary controller. This rule also applies to portable computers with removable disc drives.
Cables or other drive related issues
Some computers today have multiple disc drives, e.g. a DVD drive and another CD or CD-RW drive. If your computer has multiple disc drives consider disconnecting one of the drives while trying to boot from the disc if you're encountering problems.
With some IDE or ATA disc drives if the drive is not connected as the first drive (first connection on the cable) it can prevent the drive from properly booting. If you've never been able to boot from a CD or DVD with this computer consider checking to verify that the drive is the fist drive on the cable.
Verify other CD or DVD discs work in the drive. If the drive is a bad drive it will be unable to boot from the disc because it cannot read from the disc. If after doing this you determine the drive is bad it's recommended you replace the drive.
- CD, DVD and other disc drive buying tips.
- Steps on how to install a disc drive and other computer components.
Additional information
- See our boot sequence definition for further information and related links on this term.